We talk about what we’ve been doing, including using Windows 7 and Windows XP (yeah, we weren’t sure if we were on the right show either), testing Natty some more, getting wound up by screencasting tools, installing a Minecraft server, attending a mobile app developer conference, and getting surprise pressies from Tony.

9 Comments

Note that the bug from ‘Not About Ubuntu’ also impacted Ubuntu Natty (although is now fixed).

On 04.17.11 Benny wrote these pithy words:

Who the hell pick these articles for discussion these topics are boring, most ubuntu user wants to here the latest news actives for music player , games, graphics , Office – Libre , and general tweaking to there desktop .

Hi guys, thank you all for the effort. Loving the podcast. I’d like to comment on two things.

The first was Laura C’s timely reminder (on episode 2 or 3 of this season) that personal computer really took off when people were able to have more than one window open – which implied that Unity, by almost “hiding” the multiple windows, could perhaps be seen as a regression. There is an imporant point there; however, as a PhD researcher, I am finding that actually, by hiding most of the clutter, Unity helps me focus on my work – although that might tell you more about me than about the strengths of the different desktop interfaces.

The second is about the use of free software in Academia. Frankly, besides R for statistical analysis, I’m yet to find anyone openly advocating free software, and I get puzzled looks from other end-users whenever they happen to take a peek at my screen. I have also struggled to get IT support – and they are all nice guys, it’s not personal – to install the stuff I wanted in my workstation: OpenOffice, Zotero, FreeMind, nothing fancy. I took the opportunity to sort of interview the guy who finally did it, and he was very clear: they can’t/won’t help me if something goes wrong; they have Microsoft certification and are more or less prepared to deal with anything Microsoft software throws at them, so won’t risk advocating free software because most people will think it’s just the cheap alternative to Microsoft and will engage in massive bitching as soon as there is any glitch. In other words, the degree of system lock-in goes well below economic considerations of cost.

Just like to say that I really enjoy listening to your podcasts, they are usually very interesting and entertaining, and help me to keep up with the latest news in the Ubuntu and Linux world. Also, what software do you use to broadcast and record your podcasts? I often do audio editing and would find it useful to know what audio software you as a team would recommend.